Behold the fruit (or vegetable) of my not so terribly intense labor. These little guys really weren’t ready to be picked but I was making potato salad and my potato salad needs green onions. These are the first green onions I’ve picked from our herb and vegetable gardens. It’s so nice to just walk out the kitchen door and grab just the amount of herbs I need for whatever dish I’m preparing.

After pining for an herb garden and/or vegetable garden for the last several years, I’ve finally got a little one going. Space at the new house and weekends off have finally given me the opportunity. I started the herbs on our deck very very shortly after the last frost but we kind of procrastinated about the vegetable garden. I honestly didn’t think we’d do it this year. But we did and I actually kind of squeal with delight every time I look at the garden and the quickly growing plants in it. Which means I squeal every day as I can’t resist looking at the plants.

In addition to the obvious benefits of very-locally grown food, I keep thinking of the money we’ll save by gardening. A large portion of our weekly grocery spending goes to fresh fruit and veggies…cutting just a portion of that will save a lot of money. Getting the garden set up was cheap. We spent $11 on dirt from a local source and about $30 on seeds and other garden necessities. Think of how few vegetables $41 buys at the grocery store. A bunch of basil alone will set you back several dollars. We’ll recoup our expenses in no time…if the bunnies don’t get to the veggies first.

Because I planted the herbs earlier, we’ve been enjoying cilantro for quite a while. It was a great accompaniment to the carnitas I wrote about last week. I used it in the fresh pico de gallo I made for those.

And then there’s the basil. I made a pretty tasty Israeli cous cous salad last week with lots of torn fresh basil in it.

The basil looks like it’s going to be tremendously prolific. I’ve already shared a little of the basil as there’s plenty of it and there’s more on the way for later in the summer. A lot of that will probably get made into pesto that I’ll keep in the freezer to use later in the year.

I’ve also got some rosemary, parsley and chives planted in the deck based herb garden…but those don’t make me quite as happy as the cilantro, basil and green onions do. The rosemary is still really small…but I expect to get all excited about that once it grows a little.

We planted our “better late than never” vegetable garden at the end of May figuring that the part of Virginia we live in has a pretty long growing season. The boyfriend wisely put up chicken wire to try to keep the woodland critters out of our veggie plot. Our house is really close to a small woods and we have an insane number of rabbits roaming the neighborhood. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the chicken wire will keep the bunnies out of the garden as I don’t want to have to share with them!

In our small garden, we’ve planted 2 kinds of green beans, lima beans, cucumbers, Roma tomatoes, butternut squash, broccoli, basil and green onions. We’re not really expecting the broccoli to do well and if it doesn’t, we’ll plant more later. We’re also going to plant some spaghetti squash a little later in the season as I’d love to have a supply of that for the winter.

If this year’s garden does well, we’ll probably expand it a little bit next year. We’re starting small…but we’ve got big hopes.

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Seriously, how has it been a month since I’ve posted? I blame the photo of the day thing I’m doing on Flickr. I’m taking a picture everyday and posting the photos on Flickr with a nice little description…and this is taking the wind out of my blogging sails. Sorry. If you really really really care about what I’ve been up to lately, head on over to my Flickr page. There are lots of pretty pictures of food and flowers and plants over there.

And just to prove that I do still cook….

Pork carnitas. Yummy pork carnitas. If you’re not familiar with carnitas, you ought to be. The pork is a nice change from the usual beef or chicken. But maybe you don’t like pork quite as much as I do. Most people don’t.

These are from the May 2009 issue of Everyday Food Magazine and the recipe is available on the Everyday Food website. I followed the recipe to the letter for the pork. I didn’t, however, use the same toppings they used. Instead I topped my pork with sharp cheddar cheese, fresh pico de gallo (made with just picked cilantro from my herb garden) and sour cream.

As you look at the recipe, I’m pretty sure you’re going to scratch your head and say “Ewwwwww!” Yes, the recipe does instruct you to simmer/saute the pork in a mixture of milk and orange juice. Yes, this does sound gross. Yet I followed the recipe and I can assure you that the pork did not under any circumstances taste gross. The milk and orange juice thing repulsed me so much that I almost wanted the pork to taste bad. Shouldn’t milk and orange juice curdle when mixed together and shouldn’t mixing them together ruin the pork? Despite my skepticism, the pork was scrumptious.

This blog writing thing was fun. Maybe I should do it again sometime soon. Maybe if I do it again sometime soon people will still want to visit my site. Wishful thinking?

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I’m a little light on photo and blog content lately. This is because I’m in the midst of a self-imposed baking hiatus. Summer is approaching and I must admit that I indulged in a few too many treats during the long, cold and miserable months of winter. So I’m attempting to undo a little of the damage from all of the cakes, cookies and rolls. Don’t worry too much. The baking hiatus is temporary. It won’t turn into a long sabbatical. I won’t retire. I like baking too much.

On to the cake…

I’m not a big fan of spice cake. Or at least I wasn’t until I was introduced to this cake last fall. The boyfriend’s boss made it for his birthday. Whenever there’s a birthday in his office, someone is in charge of bringing cake (or dessert). Quite often the baking job has fallen on me….despite the fact that I don’t work there.

When the boyfriend’s birthday rolled around last year, his boss was responsible for the cake. Apparently she felt that it had to be great since he gets my desserts at home all the time and she knows how tasty some of them have been. Needless to say she did a great job choosing the cake and baking it!

He brought the leftovers home and I pretty much gorged myself on it for the next couple of days. I even ate this cake for breakfast. Not that there’s anything wrong with eating cake for breakfast. Especially when the cake has nutritious ingredients like apples and walnuts.

The recipe for the cake can be found on the Food Network website. It’s a Gale Gand recipe called Stella’s Stellar Apple Spice Cake. Stellar isn’t nearly a generous enough word for this cake.

It’s an apple spice cake with lots of walnuts and golden raisins. I don’t really like most spice cakes but this one I love. I also don’t adore raisins…but the golden raisins more than okay in this cake. The apple pieces are relatively large and give the cake a nice texture.

The cake itself is kind of like a spice cake brownie. It has a crunchy top and a soft interior like a good brownie should. But no chocolate. That would be weird.

The recipe calls for a glaze over the cake. The boyfriend’s boss didn’t make the glaze and neither did I . The cake doesn’t need it. Other than skipping the glaze, I didn’t make any changes to the recipe.

Just in case you didn’t click one of the other links, the recipe is here.

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I found this questionnaire/meme on the Brownie Points blog. I pretty much never do these things. I avoided the Facebook 25 Things meme. Yet I’m answering this one AND posting it on my blog. Apparently I’m more than willing to talk about myself when the topic relates to food.

Here’s the quiz as copied from Brownie Points. The questions as I copied them are in bold, my answers are not in bold.

If you post this on your site, please give that site credit!

I’d also love to see your answers here on my website!

GETTING TO KNOW YOU QUIZ

Metal or non-stick? Metal. Most of the time. I use mostly Calphalon anodized aluminum pans without a non-stick finish.

Cast iron or stainless? Cast iron. I’ve never really cared for stainless. Not even as a teenage cook.

Cutting board: silicone or wood? Silicone for actual use because they can be thrown in the dishwasher. But I do have several wood ones for photography.

Knife: carbon steel or stainless? Carbon steel. Wusthof Classic.

Kitchenaid or hand mixer? Mostly the Kitchenaid. But I do like the hand mixer for some things…like small batches of frosting.

Cooktop: gas, electric, induction? Electric. Sigh. I dream of having gas.

Side-by-side, freezer on top, fridge on top? Side-by-side. A big huge but not very expensive one. When people visit our house for the first time, the size of the fridge is often the first thing they mention.

Apron or whoops? Whoops. I have a lot of grease stained shirts. I do own aprons but I never remember to wear them.

Mashed potatoes: by hand, ricer, or mixer? By hand with a potato masher and then with a fork. I like the chunks.

Sandwich or wrap? Sandwich. Wraps are okay but real bread will always win with me.

PB & _________ ? Chocolate. Or celery sticks. Not jelly. I don’t like PB&J sandwiches. I don’t think I liked them as a kid.

Pancakes: syrup or applesauce? Syrup. Real maple syrup. Preferably grade B. People put applesauce on pancakes? I truly was not aware of this.

Cake: scratch or mix? Scratch. It’s really not that hard and they taste so much better.

Chili: beans or no? Beans. See my old blog post about it chili.

Napkin: cloth or paper? Cloth. This is a fairly recent choice I made to be less wasteful. They’re also a lot prettier.

BBQ: takes the whole weekend to make or take out? I wish I could say that I always make it from scratch. But I can’t. It always tastes much better from a hole in the wall bbq joint.

Chicken: white or dark? White. So much so that as a kid I was an expert at finding the white meat in a bucket or tray of fried chicken.

Ice cream: cone or dish? No real preference. Usually a bowl at home. And a waffle cone when I’m actually at an ice cream shop.

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Here’s another list of things on my mind/agenda this Spring. Believe it or not, I do have things to do other than takes pictures of Spring flowers.

Song I can’t stop playing over and over and over again: Grapevine Fires by Death Cab for Cutie. I’ve had the album it’s on since it came out last year and I didn’t notice this song until recently.

Made for dinner tonight: Blueberry walnut whole wheat waffles - adapted from a recipe in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything.

Currently drinking: Horizon 2% organic lactose-free milk. I’m not lactose intolerant but this milk is tasty. It’s sweeter than the regular organic milk.

Playing on the iPod right now: This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) by The Talking Heads - it’s the Stop Making Sense version. And it’s pretty much my favorite song in the world. And it’s the source of my subject line.

Currently reading: The Tenth Muse by Judith Jones, The United States of Arugula by David Kamp, A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, and the latest issues of Saveur, Martha Stewart Living, and Everyday Food.

Laughing about: The woman a coworker talked to this afternoon. The woman kept telling my coworker about a nudist colony in our area.

Currently knitting: Nothing. I’ve got a lot of works in progress but it’s bordering on too hot to knit here at the moment.

Anxiously awaiting: A vacation. Too bad that’s not until August. At least there are a few 3 day weekends in the next couple of months.

In need of: A mouse for my MacBook. Sometimes I get tired of using the touchpad. But not tired enough to buy one just yet…

Playing on the iPod now: Who Will Stop the Rain? by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Will soon attempt to learn: Photoshop CS4. It’ll soon be on my computer and I’m going to a seminar on it for work next week. With luck I will no longer have to ask the boyfriend for assistance with hard to edit photos.

Currently checked out from the library: The United States of Arugula by David Kamp, Frank Stitt’s Southern Table, What to Eat by Marion Nestle - Yes, I like to read about food.

What’s keeping me busy: Life in a house. The yard needs work, I need to paint more rooms, and I should probably clean something. It never ends. But it’s much better than living in a tiny, crummy apartment.

Hyped up about: The Where the Wild Things Are movie. The trailer grabbed me. The Arcade Fire music in the trailer probably helped. Too bad they’re not doing any music for the movie itself.

Waiting for: The opportunity to see my sister’s new old house. She and her husband are nearly moved in and I want to see the house!!

Something I need to do tonight if it kills me: Order some shoes. I ruined my nice pair of flip flops with paint. I still need sneakers and black sandals for work. I think I’m going to bite the bullet and order them all at once. Just to be done with it.

Craving: Five Guys french fries. I’m not even hungry right now….they’re just that delicious.

Hell hath frozen over because: I might actually make a Paula Deen recipe. I need to experiment with red velvet cake and this recipe looks good. Shockingly it contains no butter. How very un-Paula Deen of her.

Playing on the iPod now: Rock & Roll by Eric Hutchinson. So catchy. It makes me dance despite the fact that I don’t dance.

If I had magical powers: I wouldn’t have allergies. I’m tired of my sniffly nose. Without allergies, I think it would be a lot easier for me to get up in the morning.

Can’t believe: I’m actually on day 114 of 365 with the Flickr photo project of taking one picture every day for a year. I thought I’d give up by now.

Looking forward to: A brief trip to New York in late June for work. I get to go to the Summer Fancy Food Show. I’m pretty pleased that I get to go.

Also looking forward to: A trip to DC the weekend of my birthday. I should start looking for fun things to do. With luck the temperature won’t be 8,000 degrees that weekend. Does anyone have any good (but not grossly expensive) dinner recommendations?

Trying to decide: If I would use the Beater Blade if I got it. Yes, the stuff that doesn’t get mixed in the bottom of my Kitchenaid does bother me. But is it worth another the price of another attachment? Probably not.

Must figure out: How much money to charge for a wedding cake for 250 people? I’m new to baking cakes for money, I want to charge a fair price and I worked with both the bride and groom. So what’s a good price?

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